Copy of Book of Mormon Is Auctioned for $105,000

Several weeks ago, according to the owner of an upstate New York auction company, he and his staff were combing through the belongings of an elderly man about to enter a nursing home. The house was just outside Palmyra, the birthplace of the Mormon religion, and amid the attic clutter, at the bottom of a box of books, was the treasure: a 177-year-old first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon.

At an auction held yesterday in nearby Geneva, an undisclosed bidder from the East Coast paid $105,600, including the auctioneer’s commission, for the book, which is considered sacred by Mormons. There were originally 5,000 first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon, and some collectors estimate that fewer than 500 may remain today.